Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) L. Andersson
Request for Comments: 6291 Ericsson
BCP: 161 H. van Helvoort
Category: Best Current Practice Huawei Technologies
ISSN: 2070-1721 R. Bonica
Juniper Networks
D. Romascanu
Avaya
S. Mansfield
Ericsson
June 2011
Guidelines for the Use of the "OAM" Acronym in the IETF
Abstract
At first glance, the acronym "OAM" seems to be well-known and well-
understood. Looking at the acronym a bit more closely reveals a set
of recurring problems that are revisited time and again.
This document provides a definition of the acronym "OAM" (Operations,
Administration, and Maintenance) for use in all future IETF documents
that refer to OAM. There are other definitions and acronyms that
will be discussed while exploring the definition of the constituent
parts of the "OAM" term.
Status of This Memo
This memo documents an Internet Best Current Practice.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on
BCPs is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6291.
Andersson, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 1]RFC 6291 OAM Terminology June 2011Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Pre-Existing Uses of OAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1. Uses of OAM in Other SDOs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1.1. The "O" in OAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1.2. The "A" in OAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1.3. The "M" in OAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2. Uses of OAM in the IETF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. Recommendations on the Use of the "OAM" Acronym . . . . . . . . 5
4. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Andersson, et al. Best Current Practice [Page 2]RFC 6291 OAM Terminology June 2011
1. Introduction
The main purpose of this document is to provide a definition of the
acronym "OAM" (Operations, Administration, and Maintenance) for use
in all future IETF documents that refer to OAM.
The acronym "OAM" is frequently used in the data and
telecommunication industry. One would assume that something that is
so widely used is very clearly defined. However, a closer look
reveals some points that need to be clarified.
If such an important piece of our technology is so poorly defined, or
if there are dialects of the technology with different understandings
of such a key concept, this will eventually cause problems.
Trying to understand the use of an acronym that is as "content-rich"
as OAM reveals two levels of complexity. First, each letter in the
acronym represents an integrated piece of functionality. Second, the
acronym, as such, represents something that is more than just the sum
of its parts.
There is also the issue of how each piece of the acronym is defined.
This document provides an analysis of what each initial of the